Professor of physics, author, and astronaut, Sally Ride born in Encino, California

1972

US and USSR sign ABM treaty

1983

Earthquake, tsunami kills 104 in Japan

2006

Earthquake kills over 5,700 in Java

1521

Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms (vohrms) because of his religious beliefs and writings.

1650

English Gen. John Churchill, ancestor of statesman Sir Winston Churchill. born

1805

Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned king of Italy.

1865

Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

1868

President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives for "high crimes and misdemeanors." He won acquittal in the Senate by one vote.

1870

Giuseppe Verdi wrote that he liked an idea put forth for a new grand opera. "I have the read the Egyptian story. It is well-conceived," Verdi wrote, and proceeded to compose "Aida."

1886

Singer Al Jolson. born

1893

The conductor who commissioned Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Eugene Goosens, was born. (Goosens' father and grandfather were also conductors)

1907

Actor John Wayne born

1908

Actor Robert Morley born

1913

Actors' Equity Association was organized.

1913

Actor Peter Cushing born

1920

Singer Peggy Lee born

1923

Actor James Arness. born

1924

The composer Victor Herbert, in his sixties and weighing about 260 pounds, died of a heart attack while climbing the stairs to his doctor's office in New York.

1925

Actor Alec McCowen born

1939

Sportscaster Brent Musberger born

1939

Opera singer Teresa Stratas born

1940

The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, during World War Two began.

1942

Rock singer-musician Levon Helm (The Band) born

1948

Singer Stevie Nicks born

1949

Actor Philip Michael Thomas born

1949

Actress Pam Grier born

1949

Singer Hank Williams Jr. born

1951

Sally Ride, first American woman in space born

1954

More than 100 crew members of the aircraft carrier USS Bennington died in an explosion off Rhode Island.

1957

Actress Margaret Colin born

1958

Country singer-songwriter Dave Robbins (BlackHawk) born

1962

Actress Genie Francis ("`General Hospital'') born

1962

Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait born

1964

Singer Lenny Kravitz born

1966

Actress Helena Bonham Carter born

1968

Rock musician Phillip Rhodes (Gin Blossoms, The Pharoahs) born

1969

The "Apollo Ten" astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.

1971

Rhythm-and-blues singer Joey Kibble (Take 6) born

1971

Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone born

1972

At the Moscow summit, President Nixon and Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pact limiting nuclear weapons.

1977

George H. Willig scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.

1981

Fourteen people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS "Nimitz" off Florida.

1987

Former PTL leader Jim Bakker told ABC's "Nightline" he had made a "terrible mistake" in turning control of the ministry over to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, and accused Falwell of misleading him.

1989

Reports began circulating that House Majority Whip Tony Coelho would resign to spare himself and the Democratic Party the ordeal of an investigation into his ethics.

1990

Soviet maverick politician Boris N. Yeltsin failed in a second round of voting to win the presidency of the Russian Federation. (He succeeded in a third round of balloting three days later.)

1991

A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard; crash investigators blamed an engine thrust reverser that had inexplicably deployed shortly after takeoff.

1991

Rick Mears became the third driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times.

1992

The White House announced that the Coast Guard was returning a group of Haitian refugees picked up at sea to their homeland under a new executive order signed by President Bush.

1992

President Bush and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won primaries in Kentucky, Arkansas and Idaho.

1994

President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.

1994

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. (The marriage, however, did not last.)

1995

In the tobacco industry's largest recall ever, Philip Morris USA halted sales of several cigarette brands, including some versions of top-selling Marlboro, because some filters were contaminated.

1996

Buddy Lazier won the Indianapolis 500.

1996

A police sergeant searching the murky waters where ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people aboard, found the crucial cockpit voice recorder.

1996

Albania's opposition parties pulled out of the election on polling day because of "terror'' and manipulation of the poll by the ruling Democratic Party.

1997

Australian Prime Minister John Howard made an unexpected personal apology to tens of thousands of Aborigines forcibly taken from their parents under a past government policy of assimilation.

1998

The Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island, historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in New Jersey, not New York.

1998

The Supreme Court made it far more difficult for police to be sued by people hurt during high-speed chases.

1999

House Republicans pushed through legislation that would put new obstacles in the way of spending government surpluses that came from Social Security taxes.

1999

Indian aircraft fired on separatist guerrillas in the Kashmir province and Pakistan threatened retaliation; it was the first use of air power in years in the long-running conflict over the Himalayan border region.

2000

Barry Grunow, 35, an English teacher at Lake Worth Community Middle School in Florida, was shot to death by Nathaniel Brazill, a seventh grader who'd been sent home for throwing water balloons on the last day of classes.

In the early days of Unix, a date-tagged list of historical events
was used by system administrators to add some interest to the system's
Message of the Day. Whenever users logged in they would be presented
with the latest system notices, perhaps some mildly amusing quotes and
one or two lines of historical events, based on the current date.

Today in History (UNIX calendar) uses some of the
entries from the original library but is updated with current events as well.
Instead of plain text, each entry is now formatted in HTML and
each day may include one or more icons of historical figures or celebrities.

Other things unique to the UNIX calendar are references to dates
found in fictional literature such as Lord of the Rings,
perhaps undue emphasis on people and events that were part of
popular culture in the 70's and technical minutiae about computers
and operating systems that might not be found in other places.

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are used to defray the cost of maintaining the Today in History site
and editorial efforts.